A drone was an assimilated individual augmented with Borgtechnology and capable of assimilating others, be it an individual or technology, into the Collective. After assimilation a drone possessed no sense of individuality and served only the Collective.

It is unknown how many types of drones there are. At this time only the medical and tactical drones are known to exist, as well as the Borg Queen.

Via nanoprobes, which were uniquely encoded for every drone, a drone was capable of assimilating others into the Borg Collective. (VOY: "One") Drones could assimilate an entire starship, replicating components to interface with local technology. (ENT: "Regeneration")

Star Trek: First Contact is the only instance in which Borg drones were seen being attacked by projectile weapons. It is therefore unclear whether or not they can adapt to projectiles as effectively as they could energy weapons.

A Borg drone needed to periodically regenerate in specially fitted alcoves to "feed" its organic and cybernetic parts. The organic components of a drone were fed by their implants, which synthesized organic molecules. The implants, in turn, received energy from the drone's alcove during its regeneration cycle. However, if necessary, a drone could go without regeneration for at least two hundred hours. (VOY: "Hunters") When there was no alcove at hand, a Federationpower conduit could be adapted to feed a Borg drone. (TNG: "I Borg") When regenerating, Borg drones shut down all non-essential bodily systems, such that their entire metabolism became integrated with the power system and distribution network aboard their ship, thus merging their life signs into their vessel. (TNG: "Q Who")

A Borg drone, or former drone, did not react well to long periods of isolation. This is because they were accustomed to being part of the Collective, especially when the drone in question was assimilated at a young age. (VOY: "One") This could even force stranded drones to create their own Collective because they could not cope with their resurfacing personalities when disconnected from the hive mind. (VOY: "Survival Instinct")

Following assimilation, a drone was given a designation appropriate to its function within the collective and position within its unimatrix. For example, the third drone in a group of nine assigned to one particular function may be given the designation "three of nine". (VOY: "Infinite Regress", "Dark Frontier", "Survival Instinct")

Initial concept sketches of the Borg drone by David Fisher (left) and Rick Sternbach (right)

Rick Sternbach's concept sketches of a drone's arm attachment

The original story concept for the Borg had described them as a race of insects, hence the term "drone". But due to budget constraints, this was changed to a race of cybernetic beings - human-machine hybrids who had an insect-like social culture and a hive mentality in which the drones relentlessly carried out the commands of the collective. The first concept for the drone came from costume designer Durinda Rice Wood, who had sketched out a rough illustration showing a man in a suit with tubes running around it and plugged in at different spots. The sketches made it clear that the Borg look would have to be an integration of make-up and costume in a way that no other characters had been before. Illustrators David Fisher and Rick Sternbach also contributed their own designs for the Borg drone. (Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Continuing Mission, pp.90-92; Star Trek: Aliens & Artifacts, p.82)

The original helmets for the first drones seen in "Q Who" were actually fabricated in the makeup department while the wardrobe department were assembling the suits out of a dark spandex-type fabric and metallic urethane. The two departments worked together initially to make sure the helmet and suit designs integrated properly. (Star Trek: Aliens & Artifacts, p.82)

The helmet headpieces were made out of foam rubber cast from clay sculpture molds. Foam rubber was the material of choice so that the helmets would be comfortable for the actors to wear, especially on ten-hour long shooting days. The helmets were then colored to match the dark costume. An important element of the helmets was that they not be full head coverings. They had to look like alien headpieces hardwired into the brain, not bathing caps. That was why, even from the beginning, the helmets only covered part of the skull, leaving other areas exposed. When the helmets were completed an in place, clamps were then attached to the headpiece for the tubing that was already sewn into the suits to be run around the actor's body and attached to the helmet. With that in place, the makeup artist attached the unique bits of the machinery parts that helped to individualize each drone. (Star Trek: Aliens & Artifacts, pp.82-83)

Originally, the parts were fabricated out of urethane, but eventually the makeup department started experimenting with other materials, such as old parts torn out of electric equipment and pieces of motors. These odds and ends parts actually looked hi-tech, but reinforced the factory assembly-line look of the drones. At the same time, it added to the distinctive look each drone had, meaning no two looked identical. (Star Trek: Aliens & Artifacts, p.83)

To make the drone costume even more machine-like, everytime the costume left an exposed part of the body, the makeup artist would run one of the tubes directly into it. To make the tube insertion look realistic, the artists created a latex appliance that looked like a bullet hole and glued it directly to the actor's skin. They then glued the tube to the appliance. (Star Trek: Aliens & Artifacts, p.83)

From the initial appearance of the Borg, the makeup department realized the drones' skin tone had to match that of the "walking dead" feel that defines the drone behavior. The makeup base they chose was a product from William Tuttle's Custom Color Cosmetics in a shade called Shibui. The makeup department wanted a dead white look that blocked out all of the actor's skin tones. The Borg had to appear zombie-like on camera so that the audience would know, viscerally as well as intellectually, that the drones were devoid of any individuality and reason who would only respond to their programming. Before applying the base coat, the makeup artist glued the small foam latex plugs to the skin for tube attachements. The Shibui base coat was then applied and the actor's face was shaded to give him a skull-like appearance. (Star Trek: Aliens & Artifacts, p.83)

After "The Best of Both Worlds", the makeup department decided to utilize airbrush techniques for the drone makeup. This was first used in "I Borg" but quickly became standard throughout the course of The Next Generation due to the speed at which it could be applied and it's ability to "individualize" each drone, showcasing the many different races that the Borg had assimilated. Once the base makeup had been applied, the actors would line up like an assembly line to be airbrushed. Makeup designer Michael Westmore then started shadowing the eyes and the sides of the neck where the helmet met with the face. He then worked on the cheek bones and finally the backs of the head. He liked the use of airbrushing as a technique for a number of reasons. "It gave me greater control over the final appearance of the character," he explained. "...and was much faster for me to move down the assembly line than to give specific directions to individual artists.". Westmore used ComArt's transparent smoke gray because it gave the right shadowing and still gave a cadaverlike appearance for the drones. (Star Trek: Aliens & Artifacts, p.84)

The drones went through a number of modifications through subsequent seasons of The Next Generation. "We not only had Borg mob scenes, but we had to Borg-ify Patrick Stewart with special electronics such as his laser headpiece." recalled Westmore. "By the time we were creating Third of Five for 'I Borg', we were using airbrush techniques and even more elaborate headpieces.". (Star Trek: Aliens & Artifacts, p.84)

A concept sketch for the Star Trek: First Contact drone

The look of the Borg drone was changed further still for their appearance on the big screen in Star Trek: First Contact. The first thing that Rick Berman wanted to change was the Borg helmet so as to reveal the supposed biomechanical components underneath. As Michael Westmore recalled, "Instead of having an entire helmet, now we have these individual pieces that are on the head, so you get this bald look. That way the pieces look like they're clamped into the head individually, instead of being a full cap that pulls over the top." (Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Continuing Mission, p.245, 248)

This change in appearance presented an issue when the drones were to return in Star Trek: Voyager which had a more tighter budget. Initially, because the Borg heads were encased in a helmet that was prepainted, the only thing makeup had to do was the facial makeup. The tubing, the attachments, and the hand appliances were all prefabricated and had only to be fitted into place. This made the makeup job relatively simple and only took half an hour to complete. With the First Contact drones, makeup took around five hours to complete, down to four hours by the sixth season of Voyager. (Star Trek: Aliens & Artifacts, p.159)

Indeed, much of the Borg makeup and costumes used in Voyager first appeared in First Contact. (Delta Quadrant, p.188)

The heap of Borg corpses seen in "Scorpion" was not an on-set element but was filmed using a pile of Playmates Toys, and later added in post-production. Visual Effects Producer Dan Curry later recalled, "We didn't have the budget or the time to create full-scale body chunks, because of the cost and time it would take to do that. So, I asked our licensing department for a bunch of Borg toy action figures [....] And kudos to the person who sculpted those toys, because the detail – especially the facial detail – was so good that I was able to take the toy action figures, cut them up with a Dremel cutting tool, and then I stacked them up with hot glue and shot them at home against a little blue screen cove." To complete the scene in which the away team members from Voyager pass the pile of corpses, the live-action footage that Dan Curry had already shot of the actors was composited together with the Borg drone models. Curry remarked, "By compositing the stack of action figures, it looked very real. And the toy faces were sculpted so well that I was able to do close-ups on a [tiny] head, [...] filling the TV screen with them, and they looked very good. Of course, it was in kind of a smoky environment, but um.... So, the toys served us well and saved the production company lots of money." ("Red Alert: Amazing Visual Effects", VOY Season 3 DVD special feature) Ron Moore commented, "That was something we all knew immediately was perfect for Dan [....] He really had a lot of fun painting it, showing it to everybody. He'd come in and tell us, 'It's real disgusting now,' and he had a big smile on. It was great. We used it in a couple of shots, one with our crew, and one without." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 96)

Borg drones also make an appearance in the video gameStar Trek: Voyager - Elite Force and its accompanying comic book Elite Force, in which they are vulnerable to the "Infinity Modulator", a weapon designed by Seven of Nine that continuously rotates its modulation to prevent adaptation by Borg shielding. In the sequel Star Trek: Elite Force II, the introductory level features a boss battle with an enhanced Borg drone featuring increased shielding, weaponry and the ability to transport itself from location to location.